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Above all, Easter centers St. Gregory's parish life. Scott often tells visitors: "This is an Easter church; other churches are Christmas churches. There are two seasons at St. Gregory's: Easter; and Easter's coming." Production starts with the New Year, and involves most of our people in creative work and hospitality. For years we have adapted and refined Holy Week to match Scripture scholarship and our pastoral experience, producing a workable schedule (Maundy Tuesday for the Last Supper, for example: do ask about this during question time!). And our ritual is rich in expressions from the Christian East, where Easter has always centered popular devotion. This coming January we will offer St. Gregory's third workshop on conducting Holy Week, which already draws participants from Canterbury to Tokyo, and where we hope we may even see some Yale students soon! The deacon runs St. Gregory's liturgy, much as in an Eastern church, marshaling everyone else and speaking more than anyone but the preacher. And the deacon's first priority is building lay ministry, inside the liturgy and out. At every service, laypeople read all our readings—including the Gospel (this is one of only three Prayer Book rubrics we break deliberately)—and lay deacons assist our ordained deacons (as they do in some Church of England parishes today). The congregation supply their own prayers during the litany, and fill the procession dancing with gifts to the altar table. Laypeople also join in our Great Thanksgiving prayer, humming a drone as the presbyter chants the prayer throughout. Therefore, chief among lay diaconal roles is the cantor. In place of an organ we have chosen a skilled cantor and choral director, who leads the congregation as well as the choir, and trains collaborators like our own Scott King. |
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